Fu-Manchu is dead, right? Well, when Dr. Petrie comes back from Egypt and settles into his familiar surroundings of London, he thinks that the worst is over, however Dr. Petrie is terribly wrong. What seemed to have been the end of a terrible situation, just got worse and it’s up to Dr. Petrie and Nayland Smith to put an end to it. The terror that seems to have come along with the 20th Century just keeps on multiplying, but the worst must be over… right? Our heroes soon find out how wrong that assumption was when more horrific things come their way, but will they succeed to stop the secret organisation – called the Si-Fan – from achieving it’s ruthless goals and continuing where Dr. Fu-Manchu left off?
The Hand of Dr. Fu-Manchu is the third novel in the Dr. Fu-Manchu series by Sax Rohmer and although this is one of many books, I’ve personally never read any of them until this book, the third one, arrived in the mail. Although this might be a problem, the third book in the series do contain a few spoilers and you can easily pick up what happened in the predecessors and basically carry on as though this was the first of the series. However, without prior knowledge of what is actually going on, The Hand of Dr. Fu-Manchu will be slightly difficult to get into and to enjoy. But push through and you’ll soon be really happy with your decision as mysteries unfold, action progress and inventive traps and poisons are used to give the reader a thrilling experience of adventure and dread.
For those folks who aren’t quite sure what to expect, please be advised that the novel is not politically correct. Anyone that looks or acts remotely foreign is a villain and that may be problematic for some people. That being said, I still enjoyed it, I enjoyed the writing style, even if there were enough hyperboles to make any editor go mad with a red pen and I enjoyed the extensive usage of the exclamations, even though it is a pet peeve. The fact of the matter is that personally this book falls on a grey line for me. I don’t mind anything about The Hand of Dr. Fu-Manchu, it’s well written, gripping, fast-paced and more, but like with Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which is a classic… I simply didn’t get into it. Yes, I pressed on and there were certainly many great things about The Hand of Dr. Fu-Manchu, but on a personal level it unfortunately just don’t fall into my taste. This may be because I didn’t read the previous novels in the series though, so I need to keep that in mind, as do you.
That’s all good and well though, but as always, just because it’s not in my taste doesn’t mean it won’t be something you won’t like. My opinion is my own and it’s better for you to figure out if you agree or not, so before you go brushing off this novel as something you don’t want to read, rather get your hands on the predecessors and try it out. Who knows, you might actually find it to be a real page turner! You can purchase The Hand of Dr. Fu-Manchu here or click on the image to be taken to Amazon.
Other novels in the series that are available through Titan Books include:
The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu
The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu
The Daughter of Dr. Fu-Manchu
Please bear in mind that Titan Books are publishing the whole series and the rest will soon follow these titles. So if you’re in the mood to read a new series, give it a try… it won’t hurt, now will it?
